Rose the next star to leave his team?

Van Gundy said on AM-740's "The Game" in Orlando. "I think Derrick Rose is a great, great representative of our league, and he's a great player. And he's got good players around him, very good players around him, but if (the Bulls) can't get another star there for him is he eventually going to look around and say, 'Hey, I've got to work this out on my own and I've got to find somehow to get somewhere else so that I will have a chance to play with another star.' The league has changed."

"The league has changed," Van Gundy said. "It used to be the stars wanted to sort of have their own team, they certainly wanted good players around them, but now everything's changed. I think it started with the Celtics, bringing (Kevin) Garnett, (Paul) Pierce and (Ray) Allen together and everybody saw that and decided, 'Look, this is the only way we're going to win.'

"I think sometimes the players get sort of chastised for that, but if you're a LeBron James and you're looking at (the situation) you might want to win it in Cleveland, you might want to lead your own franchise, same with Dwight Howard, but you're looking around."

"Chris Paul I think went through the same thing," Van Gundy said. You're looking around and you see Boston and you're saying, 'I'm not going to be able to do this alone. I got to find a way, somehow, where I can get with a couple of other true stars. Not just good players, but true stars.'

"And so then LeBron goes to Miami and Chris Paul takes off and goes to the Clippers, which isn't going to be enough for him, I don't think. And so if you're Dwight, you're looking around and saying, 'I got to get somewhere where there's more people somehow.' Either they've got to come here, which if you don't have a way to do that then you've got to go somewhere else."

It's hard to disagree with Stan here. Players these days will give a team their rookie deal and one extension to get things right, but if they don't have the players to get something serious done by then, for the most part, they're looking to switch teams. In the Bulls case, they have five more years to prove to Derrick they can get something done.

However, when looking at this off-season with the lack of extensions for Thibodeau and Gibson while shipping quality players out of town for less quality players, it's easy to see where things may not sit well with Rose. If the Bulls are truly prepping for 2014, then they'd better be prepared to make 2014 work.

Rose has never come off as a guy who would leave. He's never given any hint of being unhappy. Of any star, I think he'd probably be more likely to stick it out than the next guy. That said, he also desperately wants to win, and if the Bulls don't get something done by 2017, they'll have had nine years to give it a shot. At that point, no one's going to blame him for trying to figure it out somewhere else.

Comments

This is why you have to have flexibility going forward and why you have to break up what was a feel-good, long-shot for a championship team. You can't overpay now for a six seed with no shot at a championship when in two years you have a chance and need to restructure the roster for a better chance.

If 'waiting' if your idea of having flexibility, then apparently everybody in the league has flexibility as well, since they can just 'wait' like the Bulls.

If the Bulls are really planning for 2014, then they're doing a horrendous job so far. The smart and logical strategy should have been to dump players for draft picks and tank this upcoming season.

They should have dumped Deng for a top-10 pick (GSW and TOR were shopping their 7th and 8th picks).

With Ibaka getting $12mil per, they better be prepared to give Taj $10mil per. If not, dump him for a top-10 pick.

Personally I think he's the 2nd most valuable player on this team, but if the Bulls don't like his salary (although it's below market value when you compare it to others), dump Noah for a top-10 pick.

If these moves weren't enough cap space, amnestying Boozer would have given the Bulls that much more cap space, to sign players on the cheap like Mayo, Lee, or Kaman...bid on Amnesty candidates like Luis Scola....or even resign Omer Asik.

Or if not any of those guys, the Bulls could have put together a pile of trash, hold Rose out for an entire year, tank on purpose, and probably end up with a top-4 pick...C. Zeller, SG. Shabazz, SF. McAdoo, or PF. Nerlens.

First, for better or worse, the bulls are never going to tank. They should have tanked in 03 when they actually had a bad team. This is the closest the bulls are going to get to tanking and that's looking for as few wins as possible to claim the 8th seed. Second, the bulls need to hold on to reasonably priced assets for deals better than a late lottery pick. If CP3 doesn't re-up with LA, Griffin will be the first in line asking for a trade. Love could be on his way out of MN in a year or two as well. Deals centered around Taj and picks make a lot of sense. And you don't amnesty Boozer until you have somebody worthwhile to spend the money on. Mayo, Lee and Kaman don't make the bulls appreciable better. Mayo wasn't even starting in Memphis, so he wasn't going to come in and make the bulls any better than what they are now.

I didn't say they WERE going to tank. I said, if they are planning for 2014, the SMART and LOGICAL strategy would be to trade off the high priced Vets for top-10 picks and then tank.

In 2014-15, Rose will make $17.8, Noah will make $12.2, if Taj got his extension, will probably be making $11, and Butler+Teague+2013 Pick+2014 Pick will be making close to $5mil...totaling $46mil. That leaves the Bulls with $12mil...not even close enough to offer a 'max deal' to any of the top FAs. The Bulls will probably end up resigning Deng for that $12mil.

CP3 is not walking away from LA and a 5th guaranteed year of $25mil (especially since Blake already reupped for 5yrs and $100mil). Same as Dwight. And same as Bynum. Love is under contract for 3 more years, so even if he demanded it, MINN won't trade him until 2 more years.

This is why you have to have flexibility going forward and why you have to break up what was a feel-good, long-shot for a championship team. You can't overpay now for a six seed with no shot at a championship when in two years you have a chance and need to restructure the roster for a better chance.

They can't wiff on upcoming opportunities like Kevin Love, Aldridge? Maybe take a shot on Monta Ellis. Lets be realistic, the Bulls have trouble scoring and guys like deng, boozer and noah are not second options. They need a real second option to Rose in scoring. a guy who can get 20 points a game easily. We have too many 14-12 pt per game scorers that get shut down during the playoffs. It was just too depressing when we can outrebound a team like the sixers with a 50-35 margin and still lose the game because they can't score....no fast breaks, no getting to the line, no guys that can generate offense consistently on their own. Rose loves Los Angeles so its not a given he will stay here forever.

I don't think Rose is going anywhere. He's had tremendous success here in his short career thus far. His character is much more along the lines of a Bird, Isiah, or MJ. Slightly off topic.... did anyone else see the piece on Kidd giving the best pg crown to Rondo?

This stuff turns my stomach. When they play, Rose destroys every single top tier pg in the league. Regularly. On offense and defense. How many times has he stuffed the ball back in Rondo's face when he attempts a jump shot and the shot clock is winding down? He is one of the best overall players in the whole NBA. No other pg is in that conversation.

Another thing, did anyone else catch the USA basketball announcer ripping off Stacey King? This guy repeatedly attempted to label LeBron as "too big, too strong, too fast"...Not that I disagree, but let's come up with something original. That label really only applies to two players (at their position) in the NBA in my opinion: LeBron and Rose.

Who cares. By the time Rose is out of contract he'll be about to turn 29 and starting to decline. If the Bulls haven't got a championship team by then then they need to get rid of him and rebuild anyway.

You could give Pax and Gar twenty years and they wouldn't be able to land a star. He completely dumb lucked his way into Rose thanks to a little Stern magic and good ol Paxson incompetence. It wouldn't be a shocker to see Rose leave although it would be a heart breaker. I have no faith in dumb and dumber. They have never shown even the slightest ability to land a star player.

Paxson was given the chance to step down from his GM chair to coach the squad he put together, but instead, 'resigned' from the GM position because of 'heart pressure' or whatever the problem he claimed to have.

Then he got bumped up to VP of Basketball Relations...whatever the F that means.

Derrick Rose is a huge talent that drives ratings to all time highs vs Miami for example as evidenced by his jersey sales etc. For him to watch his team gutted and not avail themselves of tremendous opporunities to upgrade in offensive talent via a loaded draft etc. has garnered the Bulls condemnation and scorn league wide.

For Chicago's phony, know-nothing media to pretend they have no idea where Van Gundy's sentiments are coming from as the cast of company hos did tonight on Chicago Tribune Live is an insult to truth and journalism.

ACL or no Derrick deserves top notch star scoring talent. Instead he gets a gutted team and double talk. F-ck yes he deserves better then a neutered Pax, bug eyed J.R. lies and cover up crony Gar Forman, and a cheap ass payroll to ensure mediocrity.

In essence translating Van Gundy> Derrick deserves better or in other words the Bulls are not worthy(!) of Derrick Rose. He was a luckout and a sad waste of talent for NBA fans being paired with the likes of Bogans and Rip. Only in Chicago. Too bad he signed that extra year rather then leaving himself that ETO to get out of dodge. But Reggies got his max money Guaranteed!

The non-rose Bulls offense revolves around system jumpshooters that need others to create for them in order to take wide open shots. You get a good defensive team like the Heat or even Sixers and that jumpshooting no dribble drive/attack offense gets shut down pretty quickly. They can be in jumpshooting paradise with excellent ball movement during the regular season but once the playoffs roll around, it won't work against the elite defenses.

It's true that one change that's slowly, but surely, taking place, is that the Bulls are gradually changing from the team that has their star locked up long term and are looking to take other team's players, to one of the teams that OTHER teams are looking at to take THEIR player instead, as he gets closer and closer to free agency.

Remember that up-and-coming team that we were in the summer of 2010, with some of our best players on rookie deals and a bright-looking future? Well, the roles are beginning to change, and soon there will be other teams licking their chops as they look to take Rose from what could end up being a gradually increasingly worse situation.

If this team continues to bleed talent and trade flexibility (being able to match salaries in trades with contracts of players other than their very best players), as well as turn down precious opportunities to ADD talent to the already-existing talent (even if it's only in the form of good role players), to continue to avoid paying luxury tax, all the while talking about ''flexibility'', they'll wind up being on the wrong end of such situations.